Since Clubhouse’s massive success shocked the world, many brands attempted to copy the concept of audio-based social networking app. Facebook Hotline is the latest one to join them.
Clubhouse started the trend of voice-based social media in August 2020 with its launch and gained insane popularity. There were around 600,000 Clubhouse users in the fall of 2020, and today they are over 6 million worldwide. So, it’s obvious, every major player in the tech world wants a piece of such massive growth.
What’s up with Facebook Hotline?
Facebook Hotline was being tested internally at Facebook. Now, Facebook has released its first public beta version. It isn’t a straight copy of Clubhouse. Although, the design of the app & the web shares a lot of similarities with Clubhouse.
Facebook Hotline is like an Instagram version of Clubhouse. In Hotline, You get features similar to Clubhouse, but on top of that, you get live streams of creators, text, or audio to interact with them, and you can even use your video to interact as well. Hotline gives you the option to turn on your video whenever you want to.
So, Clubhouse being an audio-only platform, is getting a feature-packed competition from Facebook. The Hotline is different from the current competitors of Clubhouse and even from the others as well.
Hotline is more of a Q&A platform lead by Eric Hazzard. He is famous for his app tbh, a Q&A app that was acquired by Facebook in 2017 and then shut down later. The platform offers the creator to use his/her video or audio to connect with the listeners and formally answer their questions.
The application is targeted more towards formal discussions and Q/A sessions where the creator wouldn’t be as casual as they can be at Clubhouse. The Clubhouse is more towards the casual side of things. People can talk free and fun conversation there.
How Facebook Hotline works?
In Hotline, the creator has the option to go live with or without video as we have talked and the listeners can ask questions or listen to the discussion. Their section is divided into two parts one who are just listening to the event shown by their profile icons, and the others who are asking questions, shown on top.
They both are shown differently and whatever questions they put, it goes into a list of questions and in which other listeners can upvote or downvote as per their liking. The creator can remove any question which doesn’t make sense or an inappropriate one. The listeners can also be removed by the creator on any mischief or any violation.
There are also emoji reactions that the listeners can use on the asked questions. Questions that are asked by the listeners get answered by the creator one by one and then he/she can engage with any individual listener into a longer discussion.
The whole is session is by default being recorded by Facebook Hotline; and the creator can get two versions of the recorded event – in video format or in audio-only format.
Listeners can find comfort with Facebook Hotline because you can join the discussion in a text-only medium as well, which is good for those who have noisy backgrounds.
Facebook Hotline had its first Q&A by Nick Huber who happens to be one of the investors.
Is Facebook Hotline Useful?
We can see Hotline being useful in many different scenarios, for example, it can be used as a platform where a creator engages with his/her audience and explain his/her product to them and answering their questions regarding it.
People can be audio-only, text-only, and in the video, all kinds of mediums are available there. Facebook made sure users doesn’t seem to be left out on any feature. But this can make it look like Instagram Live or other similar applications because having too many options often leads a product to lose its primary focus.
Conclusion
We will have to see how it works out for Facebook in the future. And how much trust people will show on Facebook Hotline? It will be debatable, having Facebook’s bad image in the privacy of their users. So, the question, is Facebook Hotline is another Clubhouse Competitor? No, It is different but it shows the potential to compete it.
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